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The theatre buildings that make up La Ciutat del Teatre sit in a tight huddle
off c/de Lleida, with the
Mercat de les Flores
theatre – once a flower market
– and progressive
Teatre Lliure
occupying the spaghetti-western-style Palau de
l’Agricultura premises built for the 1929 Exhibition.Walk through the terra-
cotta arch from c/de Lleida, and off to the left is the far sleeker
Institut del
Teatre
, with its sheer walls contrasting markedly with the neighbourhood’s
cheap housing, whose laundry is strung just metres away from the gleaming
Theatre City. The institute brings together the city’s major drama and dance
schools, and various conservatories, libraries and study centres. The “Theatre”
section in Chapter 13 has more details about performances, events and festivals
at all these venues.
Poble Sec
Lying immediately below Montjuïc, confined by the hill on one side and the
busy Avinguda del Paral.lel on the other, is the neighbourhood of
Poble Sec
(
o
Poble Sec), or “dry village”, so called because it had no water supply until
the nineteenth century. It’s a complete contrast to the landscaped slopes behind
it – a grid of contoured narrow streets, down-to-earth grocery stores, bakeries,
local shops and good-value restaurants. Asian immigrants have stamped their
mark on many of the neighbourhood stores and businesses, while Poble Sec is
also slowly becoming a bit of a “new Raval” as a walk along the main, pedestri-
anized
Carrer de Blai
shows – quite a few fashionable bars have opened here
recently. Meanwhile, the Montjuïc
funicular
has its lower station on the
southern fringe of the neighbourhood (access from
o
Paral.lel).
Many visitors never set foot in Poble Sec, though the opening of one of the
city’s old CivilWar air-raid shelters provides a compelling reason to make the
short journey across town.
Refugi 307
, at c/Nou de la Rambla 169 (guided
visits Sat & Sun at 11am, noon & 1pm; €3;
T
932 562 122,
W
www.museu
historia.bcn.cat), was dug into the Montjuïc hillside by local people from
The city under siege
During the Civil War years Poble Sec – like many inner-city neighbourhoods —
suffered grievously from Nationalist bombing raids, a foretaste of what was to come
in Europe during World War II. From 1936 onwards, the city authorities planned for
a system of communal
air-raid shelters
and many had been excavated by the time
that the first raids hit Barcelona in early 1937. The raids were particularly savage in
March 1938, and by the end of the war three thousand inhabitants had died in the
bombings, with many more injured and thousands of buildings destroyed. Even so,
the shelters undoubtedly saved many lives, with most constructed in working-class
areas (like Poble Sec, Barceloneta and Gràcia) where the locals hadn’t been able
to leave the city or couldn’t reach the relative safety of either the metro tunnels or
the Collserola hills. Altogether, around 1400 shelters were built in Barcelona (and
another 2000 across Catalunya), some as simple as reinforced cellars, though many
were larger collaborative efforts like Refugi 307, featuring vaulted brick-lined tunnels,
ventilation, water supplies, and even infirmaries and play areas for children. In the
wake of Republican defeat, after the war, many of the shelters were forgotten about,
though the city council has latterly taken up their cause in the name of education and
remembrance of Barcelona’s often overlooked wartime history.
MONTJUÏC
|
Poble Sec